That’s another episode of Survivor 46! We finally got some major fireworks as alliances are ruined in the best episode of the season! Let’s dive into the episode.
Venus Continues Her Reign as Unaware Queen
Last episode’s ending left us with an important question… how much would Venus milk Soda’s exit as due to her master plan that she came up with? Turns out Venus reeeeally made sure everyone knew that she was the one in charge. She said it loud and proud to the rest of her tribe in the post-vote discussion that she was the one who got everything done to pull off the biggest blindside of the season. It only gets even more awkward the next day when Venus takes it upon herself to make peace with the person that was left out of the vote: Tevin. She goes as far as to not only clear the air over what happened, but also give Tevin some nuggets of wisdom about how to play Survivor, because Tevin clearly doesn’t have any clue about how to properly strategize.
Venus unfortunately is not living in the real world, but in her own fan-ficton game of Survivor. Tevin knew Soda was going home as he orchestrated the vote. His reason for voting Venus anyway was as insurance in case of an idol play, and to pander to Soda’s jury vote. Tevin can barely keep a straight face as Venus womansplains Survivor basics to him, when he has the actual pulse of the tribe while people like Tiffany are going around arguing to use Venus as a goat for the final three.
Then the Nami saga takes an unexpected turn. Turns out Liz, who hasn’t done or said anything all season, believes that she was the real mastermind behind Soda’s exit, not Venus or Tevin. Liz takes to the third person to tell us that sheis a WARRIOR, and that she needs to stop sitting in the backseat and try to make a big move. The big move in question is to blindside her closest ally Tevin so that he can’t take any more clout for her moves.
To Liz’s credit, she pushes for the move and is able to get enough people on board to vote Tevin out in this episode’s tribal council. It’s hard to tell where this leaves Liz in the game, because all season we have been conditioned to not care about Liz given her minimal edit. We will see if this was too early for Liz to get rid of a key ally who probably wasn’t going to turn against her (since Tevin likely saw Liz as a possible goat). The hilarious part of this result though is since Venus has been harping on how big a threat Tevin is, she will probably once again believe that she masterminded this vote and that she is by far the favorite to win the million dollars.
Tevin sadly goes home sooner than I (and probably a lot of people) expected. He played a strong game up to this point, but it wasn’t quiet enough to avoid speculation and threat labels. It also didn’t help that one of his biggest supporters did a complete one-eighty and stabbed him in the back. If Liz holds off turning on Tevin for one more vote, then the plan to vote out Tiffany would have worked without a hitch. It kind of reminds me of Millennials vs. Gen X when high schooler Will completely flipped on Zeke to send him home. Zeke and Tevin were perceived as strong players fresh off of a big vote. Will and Liz were both followers with little popularity among the fandom who flipped a switch one day and got tired of following.
An Iconic Game of Hide and Seek Occurs
This is definitely not hyperbole or recency bias, but this impromptu game of hide and seek is the most iconic camp life moment to happen on a Survivor episode in the New Era. The whole idea of it was laugh out loud funny, the execution was hilarious with people going all out to actually hide somewhere on the island, and it was only made even better by Q and Venus overanalyzing the bejeezus out of everyone’s hiding strategies. I laughed the whole time and believe me: it is hard to get me to audibly laugh at just about anything I watch on TV.
Shout out to Survivor’s hide and seek champs Hunter and Ben. Hunter was perfectly hidden in that tree and Ben ingeniously adjusted his shirt to properly blend in with the underbrush.
Q Lobs a Grenade and Proceeds to Jump on Top of It
The enormous, wonderful chaos of this episode revolves around Q, who doesn’t know when to stop cooking. To give him credit, Q really seemed to have some level of control of the game. He continued to push the “Plus One” alliance, quickly trading out recently booted Tim for Charlie the Swiftie. He had fostered a lot of positive relationships with his eccentric attitude and people wanted to be his ally. Maria put it well when she said that she could trust Q because she gave Q a reason to trust her. He’s a straight shooter: agree to the conditions and he won’t betray you… sway in allegiance and you are free game to vote out.
With his alliance redubbed as “The Six”, Q lays the foundation for a shocking blindside of Tiffany and her idol, because she had mentioned to a few people that she was “weighing her options”. Q doesn’t want people wavering and having side alliances: Q wants people playing Q’s game, which is sticking with The Six. Tiffany had an alliance with Kenzie, friendly relations with Ben, a desire to keep Venus, and an inkling to vote out Maria. None of this flew with Q.
Q seemed to have all the pieces in place for a huge blindside… but Survivor is not chess. Everyone outside of the Plus One alliance found common ground in voting Tevin out. Without a clear majority, Q’s plan to get Tiffany out of the game looked less and less likely to happen. Q goes to Hunter with the reality that Tevin is probably going home, and Hunter is unable to sway people to vote a different way. Q takes his inability to control the vote as a giant failure on his part, which leads to his actions at the tribal council.
In a way, I see the thought process through my armchair psychologist lens. Q has proven to be a high achiever who is hard on himself, an emotional Survivor player obsessed with controlling the vote, and a team player due to his football background. By failing to protect Tevin, a key castaway in his Plus One alliance, he viewed himself personally responsible for Tevin’s exit. He didn’t want to see someone face consequences for a result that he perceived as something he could have prevented. That’s what Q was trying to convey when he explain the reasoning for telling the tribe to vote him out: he didn’t want to see allies and friends go home if he can prevent it. This also falls in line with previous times he mentioned quitting, mainly during the poor spell in Yanu where he held himself personally responsible for the tribe’s inability to win immunity.
The problem is that Q is fatally flawed by viewing the game from only his own perspective. For some reason, he assumes that every person is playing Survivor through him. He sees his noble action of falling on the grenade as a way to bring freedom for everyone else to make big moves and achieve their Survivor dreams. But it’s just not true… everyone is already playing their own game, and seeing an ally quit out of the blue when he can be a key part of their path to victory makes no sense to everyone. Q’s ego hurts him gravely: he caused a crap ton of chaos by forcing a live tribal council only for everyone to vote Tevin regardless, and in the process it comes out that Q had not only started the plan to blindside his number one ally Tiffany, but also revealed to people that she had an idol in her possession. He’s gonna have to face the fury of a lot of people in the next episode.
I think Q also did the unthinkable, which is try to quit Survivor but still make me like him so much. Being anti-quitter is the easiest camp to sit in as a Survivor fan. Q really did look like he was trying to quit the game, but this man is such a gosh-darn charming cornball of a human being that I have somehow forgiven him for committing what is basically Survivor’s unforgivable sin. Let’s be real though: Q wasn’t actually quitting because he’s going to tell us next episode that volunteering to quit in tribal council was actually a 900 IQ plan to expose where people’s allegiances… truly lie.
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Worst Invention: The Q Skirt
So Q’s invention is just a poorly located backpack/inconvenient fanny pack? Or am I misunderstanding it and it is supposed to function like a loincloth with a crotch pocket, which would be problematic for different reasons.
Best Pole Dancer: Charlie
Hey, I enjoyed the immunity challenge, and a lot of that was due to the banter amongst the castaways. Charlie stole the show for me, as his dry humor and easy going attitude is winning me over.
Most Iconic First Boot: Somehow, Jelinsky
So it seems we’ve decided that “Several” is now part of the Survivor dictionary. Can we get a committee to vote on it first?
MVP of the Episode: Charlie and Maria
I can’t bring myself to give it to Liz, so I’ll go with the Siga duo that is officially in the clear from a tribal purge and now can see a path to the final three. If there was someone else I had to pick in the Survivor 46 cast that was getting a Kenzie-like winner edit, it would be Charlie.
Goat of the Episode: Q
At the end of the day Q is totally cooked. He burned enough bridges to either be the next one voted out or the other goat to sit next to Venus.
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PLAYER TIER LIST:
OUT OF THE GAME
18. Jelinsky
17. Jess
16. Randen
15. Bhanu
14. Jem
13. Moriah
12. Tim
11. Soda
10. Tevin
BOTTOM OF THE TOTEM POLE
9. Q
8. Venus
IN AN UNCOMFORTABLE POSITION
7. Ben
He’s just relying on good vibes at this point to get further in the game. I can’t imagine this rocker actually trying to make a serious strategic plan, and I don’t think anyone left in the game has a reason to stick their neck out for him. Could be a sweat-free vote in the future.
IN A GOOD SPOT
6. Hunter
His challenge prowess and hidden idol keeps Hunter safe from an immediate exit. But I found it interesting how people were surprised to see Hunter actually trying to strategize this episode… which makes me think people see him as a non-strategic or passive player. That’s good if under the radar is what he was going for… but I think in the new era and a post-Gabler-victory world, winning purely off being a challenge beast and generally agreeable is not the correct formula.
5. Liz
Given the whole season edit, I doubt Liz wins. The question is if her push for Tevin’s exit puts her in the line of fire in the immediate future.
4. Tiffany
Her idol being public knowledge and how close she came to being voted out this week begins the process of painting a real target on her back.
IN THE DRIVER’S SEAT
3. Maria
2. Charlie the Swiftie
If the “Plus One” alliance falls apart, where will Maria and Charlie go? Right now they’ve played the middle successfully but ultimately they need to pick a side and ride it out to the end.
1. Kenzie
Quiet episode for Kenzie. She got to look cute for her fans and reiterate that things are going great for the Yanu three! She can break cleanly from Q and continue to use her charm to butter up future jury members.
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I’m officially reinvigorated for Survivor 46. I’m so excited to see how things go down next week!